Harry, hands on hips, stood up. “What good are you cats? This is your job.”
“You get upset if we kill birds,” Mrs. Murphy fired right back.
The blue jay, sitting a bit too near Matilda, swallowed the seed. Matilda opened her jaws and flicked out her tongue. The saucy bird dropped a few branches below. He wasn’t done yet, but he wanted that juicy seed to settle for a moment.
“You two look lame,” Tucker ever so helpfully said.
“Well, you try to get him.” Pewter was incensed.
“I’m not a cat. Not my job.” The corgi dropped under Fair’s chair.
“We wouldn’t have you,” the gray cat snidely spoke.
As the three animals complained to one another and about one another, the blue jay began to imitate other birds for the joy of irritating everyone.
He was successful.
Ignoring the racket, Reverend Jones asked, “Coop, what have they confessed to?”
“That’s why I drove out here, to find out,” said Franny. “Did Victor and Latigo steal my tires along with their other crimes?” She gleefully shoved divine barbecue into her mouth.
“No,” Cooper replied. “It’s going to take time to crack your case. Is it a large interstate ring or is it local? We’ll get it, Franny, just give us time.”
“Bet you will.” Alicia licked her fingers, while BoomBoom rose to get her a small little wet towel at the end of the table.
“The three remaining mechanics, Jason Brundige, Sammy Collona, and Lodi Pingrey, want to save themselves, and they want to prove they didn’t kill anyone, so they’ve been singing like canaries.”
“Do you think they did kill their co-workers?” Reverend Jones asked the tall deputy.
“No. I’m pretty certain Victor and Latigo did the killing. And that’s what Jason Brundige is saying. The murders weren’t professional grade, if you will, but they were clever, bold, and left no fingerprints. These two thought they were clever by using a different M.O. for each murder. Jason said they killed Bobby together, just like they tried to kill Harry together.”
“The killings were messages to the others,” Harry simply said.
“Yes,” Coop replied.
“Messages about what?” BoomBoom had returned to her place at the table.
“ ‘Shut your mouth. Don’t get greedy.’ The mechanics knew what Victor and Latigo were doing. And they were well paid to shut up.” Cooper swung one leg over the long wooden seat so she now sat at the end of the table facing all of them. “The mechanics received big payoffs to keep quiet about the substandard parts. In return, they received a cut of the action. Now that we have forensics accountants in law enforcement, we can find the holes in anyone’s books eventually. Walt started the ball rolling. He wanted more money to keep silent. Not only did he try to shake down Victor and Latigo, he tried to shake down his co-workers. No love lost there.”
“How much do you think the whole scheme made?” Franny inquired, ever interested in profit.
“Millions. We can only work off percentages—in other words, the cost of genuine manufacturing parts versus the cost of knockoffs—but the profit is huge.”
“So Latigo sent clients to Victor?” Fair finished his steak, thinking he’d done a great job, which he had.
“He did. Both men profited handsomely, obviously. Jason indicated that first Walt got greedy, then Nick and Bobby wanted more. Nick stupidly threatened to tell the media about the Chinese parts, the whole scam. A collision-repair shop is under no obligation to identify whether parts are from the original manufacturer or aftermarket. All Victor had to do was undercut his competition by fifteen percent. Latigo referred everyone to Victor. Both made a lot of money.” Cooper then pointed to Harry. “What really tipped you off? You were ahead of us.”
“When Herb’s truck was declared a total wreck, I knew it had many years left. That’s why I went to the lot and pulled out the radiator. I knew it wasn’t right, because the drill holes to fit it had been altered. They were elliptical, and for that I thank Dabney Farnese. When he came to repair the John Deere, he told me about substandard parts for tractors, especially the holes. He said they were dead giveaway signs, because a substandard replacement part never fit exactly right. The holes had to be altered, and he said those alterations tend to be elliptical instead of perfectly round.
“So that was it? My radiator.” Reverend Jones reached for a cupcake with thick vanilla icing.
“But I became surer about my theory when I drove over to Haldane’s Salvage and Millie Haldane showed me cracked wheels, two of which were on Tara Meola’s Explorer on the lot for scrap. Safe and Sound uses Millie’s salvage yard. That lady knows a whole lot. By the time I left there, I knew, I just knew, but I couldn’t prove that Safe and Sound was behind it. If Tara’s Explorer had had true Ford wheels, there was a chance she might have lived when she veered off the road. The copycat wheels cracked.
“And when Miranda went off the road, it was a wheel problem. She’d had that wheel replaced the year before.”
“Where is Miranda?” Franny loved the older lady.
“Choir practice. Her choir has been asked to sing at the swearing-in ceremony on the Fourth of July at Monticello.” Harry mentioned a moving event at Mr. Jefferson’s home, where people became American citizens.
“What an honor.” Alicia smiled.
“She has a solo, too. That beautiful, beautiful voice,” Reverend Jones added.
“Why did declaring Herb’s truck a total loss alert you?” Franny was curious.
“No investigation when a vehicle is declared totaled. My curiosity must have set off those two. They didn’t want me to go over the truck. I mean, Victor towed the Chevy out of St. Luke’s right away. I should have smelled a rat when he dropped off the WRX STI. He had a tracking device in the car. He knew my every move in that Subaru. I never imagined that. I was really dumb.”
“Well, stubborn is closer to the mark,” BoomBoom said.
“I was too dazzled by the WRX STI. It was easy to track me—you can watch a person’s movements on your phone GPS; hunting guys even get map printouts with their dogs’ trails overlaid on them. That’s what they did to me. When they knew I was in an isolated place where they could get me, they did. They’d obviously shadowed me to Millie’s and knew I was getting close to the truth.”
Reverend Jones thought out loud. “Greed, one of the seven deadly sins. You might have been the fourth victim.”
“Thank God my baby can drive,” Fair said. “She’s the NASCAR type.” He wiped his hand on the wet towel. “They never imagined she could control a car as well as they could.”
“I could have told them that.” BoomBoom smiled. “Reflexes like a cat.”
“Not even close,” Pewter responded.
The blue jay swept down on all those people at the table, making off with more delicious seeds from the tops of some muffins.
“That damned bird!” Franny allowed herself a curse.
Franny, who knew Millie Haldane, asked Harry, “What’d you think of Millie?”
“She’s lonely, you know. She knows a lot. Cooper, I’d pay a call on her or use her for an expert witness once you have a talk with the prosecutor. Actually, I want to see her again, too.”
“A real character.” Franny nodded.
“Look who’s talking.” Susan giggled, then became serious. “Harry, I think our phone call to Vivien Bly tipped them off, too. I mean, tipped them off that you were getting closer. I bet she ran straight to Latigo and told him everything. We should have thought of that. Just because we know he’s a two-timing you-know-what doesn’t mean she doesn’t love him. Maybe she doesn’t know.”